There's no place like Home!

And why do I say that? Because, yesterday, I locked myself out! Running between the Bar and here while helping Ana-Mary & Favio prepare for last night's party I eventually did the unthinkable and left the keys on the dining table, only to realize that just as the door latched closed on my way out. To cut a longish story short, Else-Britt and Ole-Erik (my neighbours) were kind enough to give me a bed for the night last night and today, while prepping the bar, I remembered that I know someone who could possibly get me up a ladder to force (or break) one of the balcony doors, problem being that Cristina, who has a passkey, is not here at the moment and the phone number that I have for her is now non-existent. With no damage done entry has been gained at the top of a ladder and here I am, home. Tonight (Mondays are now my night off for the time being) I'm going to comfort myself with a hot bath and an even hotter Chili Con Carne and tomorrow I am going to get spare sets of keys cut and plant them in strategic places around the area so that what has passed cannot happen again. Whilst I wasn't destitute (luckily my wallet was about my person) being homeless is not a nice feeling.

The Birthday Bash in the bar went very well. Ana-Mary's buffet was to die for, my photo does not do it any justice whatsoever and one or two of her recipes will be copied here in my kitchen over the course of time. When the eats were over the floor was quickly cleared (a 7ft x 4ft table was miraculously "disappeared", quite how from my vantage point behind the bar I was unable to work out,) and then the Flamenco Duo took centre-stage for an hour or so. Not something that I find easy to appreciate but they must have been good at what they did because those that do were ecstatic at the end of each number and I noticed Ana-Mary and a friend accompanying the singer with a Flamenco dance on a couple of occasions, again, to rapturous applause. I say noticed because the bar was bursting at the seams with bodies making it difficult for me to see what was going on from where I was. I had my new Netbook running it's inbuilt webcam (trained on me) and it was gratifying to realize, later in the evening, that Ana and Favio had gathered in front of it and were waving to friends and/or family in Colombia whom they had phoned and passed the web address to and over the hullabaloo I could hear squeals of delight coming from the phone as the folk at the other end viewed the images.

To bean or not to bean. In Texas there is a very long-running debate about whether Chilli (as they so simply call it) should have beans in or not. My choice is forced, as always, by what's in my cupboard so... no beans it is because I am not going out to get some in case I leave my keys behind!